Football Preview: Merced Bears vs. El Capitan Gauchos
Two dominant signal callers in Antonia Lejarde and Ariel Ochoa are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Merced Bears will venture away from home to square off against the El Capitan Gauchos at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: both posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Last Tuesday, Merced blew past Buhach Colony, posting a 47-16 win at home. Given the Bears' advantage in MaxPreps' California football rankings (they are ranked 142nd, while the Thunder are ranked 338th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
A big part of Merced's victory came down to the chemistry between Lejarde and her top target Amachi Turner. Lejarde threw for 342 yards and six touchdowns while Turner picked up 134 receiving yards and four touchdowns. Bree Pimentel also helped out as she racked up 144 receiving yards.
Merced's defense was in the mix too, especially the secondary: they snagged two passes before it was all said and done. In fact, those interceptions all came courtesy of defensive juggernaut Samantha Barragan.
Meanwhile, everything came up roses for El Capitan at home against Los Banos on Tuesday as the squad secured a 41-14 win. The Gauchos might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team has won ten matches by 21 points or more this season.
Merced has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won six of their last seven matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 11-4 record this season. As for El Capitan, the victory made it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 15-6.
Merced and El Capitan were neck-and-neck in their previous meeting back in October of 2023, but Merced came up empty-handed after a 7-6 defeat. Can Merced avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
